


Le Verger Du Roi Louis

by Lines_of_Pain_and_Glory



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Capital Punishment, LGBTQ Themes, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-02
Updated: 2014-10-02
Packaged: 2018-02-19 14:50:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2392310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lines_of_Pain_and_Glory/pseuds/Lines_of_Pain_and_Glory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by an old LGBT Fest Prompt.</p>
<p>1473. Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore(/Gellert Grindelwald?), knowledge of how Muggles feel about homosexuality (i.e. the whole illegal thing) helps convince him that taking over the world really IS for the Greater Good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Le Verger Du Roi Louis

“They hanged a man in Bristol yesterday.”

It’s such a strange topic in congress that he loses all his fervor.

“Gell, that’s dreadful. Why would you mention such a thing?”

“Because it’s true. The truth isn’t always a pleasant thing, Albus.”

He brushes the hair from Gellert’s eyes, with a placating touch. “Of course, but there’s a time and a place, isn’t there?”

He only looks more angered. “What better time than in commission of his crime!”

Albus stares at him agog.

“Yes, they call it ‘sodomy,’ such an ugly word for a beautiful act.”

He shakes his head trying to dismiss his own unease. “They’re barbaric, Gell. Look at the burnings.” Of course, it sickens him to see, how gladly they kill their own kind, the blood sport they make of it, but as his mother said, “We have our ways and they theirs. It’s none of our concern.”

“Why do you let these things trouble you so?”

Gellert sighs. “You’ve shared yours. It’s time I told you of the skeletons in my family closet. Albus, I knew nothing of the Wizarding world as a child.”

“But your family…” Albus hesitates in confusion. There hasn’t been a year in the five hundred since its founding when a Grindelwald didn’t sit on the International Wizengamot.

“Are all too happy to let you believe their blood is as pure as gin.” Gellert says bitterly. “Both of my parents were Squibs. I can’t say I blame them for wanting to spare their children the indignity they suffered. Among Wizardkind my father was a disgrace, a freak, but among Muggles he’s a well-respected man. Irony, isn’t it, that even had I been born without magic, I would have been far worse off?”

“I can’t even imagine. To abandon magic…is that common?” Albus suddenly has a new and unsettling perspective. He’d always believed Squibs to be very rare, but, of course, who would ever admit to it? How many so-called Muggles are all too aware of the other world around them, but choose to turn a blind eye to it?

Gellert shrugs. “My father was unusual in that he left a family of means, but what other choice does a common man have to make his way in the world with no employment open to him?”

“None, I suppose. I never considered such a thing…”

“You ought to. Because they hanged a man in Bristol yesterday…and with a twist of Fate’s cruel hand that man could have just as easily been you or I.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I know the timeline for HP doesn’t add up with when sodomy was a capital crime in Britain. Lynching? My artistic license? Grindelwald’s artistic license, maybe this guy was actually convicted of something else, but Gellert felt he wouldn’t have received such a harsh sentence if he hadn’t been a known sodomite? Take your pick.
> 
> I love the idea of these two’s plans for world domination coming from that very Victorian paternalistic colonialism “it’s for their own good” kind of mindset. One thing that fascinates me about Grindelwald is why he even took an interest in the Muggle world at all. Most pureblood wizards seem to be not just out of touch, but totally disinterested.


End file.
